Yesterday afternoon at a church campout I was tramping through the woods beside a river enjoying the fact that there are no poisonous snakes this side of the Cascades, at least in Washington, and glad I was wearing jeans and closed-toe shoes in case there were any spiders that took umbrage at my passing. I stopped to lean against a giant fallen tree and reached to hang my camera case strap on a convenient low branch so I could take a picture. Ow! what I thought was a blackberry cane that I brushed against was actually stinging nettle!
I haven't been stung by stinging nettle since we lived in Germany when I was a kid, and someone dared me to touch it. I regretted it immensely, but I don't remember it stinging like this. A friend gave me some salve with beeswax, olive oil, calendula, comfrey, and some other stuff in it and it soothed it for a while. I had taken a Zyrtec yesterday morning and took a Benedryl last night and the patch on the back of my hand is still stinging and the skin feels tight. The other two, one on the outside edge of my hand and one on a knuckle are still red but not bothering me.
Could this be more evidence of mast cell issues? Has anyone experienced anything like this? I'm hoping it's just an annoyance, but I wanted to ask.
Mast Cells and Stinging Nettle
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MBombardier
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Mast Cells and Stinging Nettle
Marliss Bombardier
Dum spiro, spero -- While I breathe, I hope
Psoriasis - the dark ages
Hashimoto's Thyroiditis - Dec 2001
Collagenous Colitis - Sept 2010
Granuloma Annulare - June 2011
Dum spiro, spero -- While I breathe, I hope
Psoriasis - the dark ages
Hashimoto's Thyroiditis - Dec 2001
Collagenous Colitis - Sept 2010
Granuloma Annulare - June 2011
I'm sure mast cells are responsible for the inflammation (how else could it occur?), but I've always assumed that was a normal reaction to nettles. When I was a kid, after school, when I didn't have any chores to do, I was always out walking the creeks and pastures on our place, and in the summer, when I was usually barefoot, I got into those suckers regularly. As you mentioned, the pain and inflammation usually lasted for a couple of days, and every time it happened, I swore that I would never let it happen again. LOL.
The worst nettles are what we call "bull nettles" around here. They're bigger bushes (usually knee to waist high), and they grow pods that contain seeds that look very similar to caster beans. They used to eat my lunch when hauling hay bales, because if they were in the hay field when it was cut for curing and baling, their dried leaves and stems would show up in and on the outside of the hay bales. Thick leather gloves usually protected my hands, but if I made the mistake of boosting a bale with my knee, when throwing it onto a trailer, ordinary jeans were not much better than nothing at all for protecting my legs. To me, that stuff burns about 10 times as bad as regular stinging nettles.
Of course, you may have different types of nettles in the PNW. Down here in Texas, what we call stinging nettles are relatively low (usually not much taller than ankle high) vine-like plants with relatively small leaves. Bull nettle has large leaves and the leaves and stems are thickly covered with long spines that look a lot like thin needles. I've never noticed any spines on the stinging nettle, though I assume the leaves are covered with some sort of "fuzz" or "hairs". I'm guessing that the stinging nettles in the PNW are much larger and probably more potent that the common nettles we have down here.
The bottom line is, I'll bet that everyone suffers the consequences of contacting a stinging nettle, not just those of us with mast cell issues.
Tex
The worst nettles are what we call "bull nettles" around here. They're bigger bushes (usually knee to waist high), and they grow pods that contain seeds that look very similar to caster beans. They used to eat my lunch when hauling hay bales, because if they were in the hay field when it was cut for curing and baling, their dried leaves and stems would show up in and on the outside of the hay bales. Thick leather gloves usually protected my hands, but if I made the mistake of boosting a bale with my knee, when throwing it onto a trailer, ordinary jeans were not much better than nothing at all for protecting my legs. To me, that stuff burns about 10 times as bad as regular stinging nettles.
Of course, you may have different types of nettles in the PNW. Down here in Texas, what we call stinging nettles are relatively low (usually not much taller than ankle high) vine-like plants with relatively small leaves. Bull nettle has large leaves and the leaves and stems are thickly covered with long spines that look a lot like thin needles. I've never noticed any spines on the stinging nettle, though I assume the leaves are covered with some sort of "fuzz" or "hairs". I'm guessing that the stinging nettles in the PNW are much larger and probably more potent that the common nettles we have down here.
The bottom line is, I'll bet that everyone suffers the consequences of contacting a stinging nettle, not just those of us with mast cell issues.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
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MaggieRedwings
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